Victorian Era Military Photographs & Other Historical Musings

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Serving His Adopted Homeland

This photographic study of a member of “B” Troop, 7th United States Cavalry would have remained unidentified had it not been for the lucky inclusion of this soldier’s calling card with the lot when purchased.

Born at Greiz in eastern Thuringia, Germany, on September 16, 1885, Emil Paul Vieweg arrived in the United States in 1906 and like so many other recent immigrants enlisted in the army soon thereafter on 14 December 1907. Attached as a private to “B” Troop of the famed 7th U.S. Cavalry, Vieweg served out his term of enlistment at Fort Riley, Kansas. He took his discharge on 13 December 1910. At that time his character was listed as “Excellent”. By 1910 he had already declared his intent to become a U.S. citizen and by 1920 his application had been granted.

Above: Private Emil Vieweg’s calling card used while he was a member of “B” Troop, 7th Regiment, United States Cavalry. His photographic portrait is attached to the card in the manner and size of a postage stamp. The photograph is exactly the same image seen in the
larger photo shown above. The card and larger portrait were in all likelihood produced as a package. Such packages were probably offered at a discount and sold in various combinations to the soldiers stationed at Fort Riley. 2 Inches by 3 1/2 Inches(5.2 cm x 9.1 cm) c. 1908. Source: Collection of Edward T. Garcia/soldiersofthequeen.com

Army life must have agreed with him but perhaps having grown tired of the rather flat and boring landscape of Kansas, Vieweg re-enlisted as a private on 23 May 1911 at Fort Wadsworth, New York this time with 53 Company, United States Coast Artillery Corps. If Vieweg had intended to make a career in the army it was a short-lived hope since he was admitted to Walter Reed Army Hospital for an unknown reason on 11 November 1912. He returned to duty at Fort Wadsworth, New York on 23 December 1912 after more than a year in the hospital. Vieweg was discharged for disability on 16 May 1913. At this time his character was stated as being “good”. He applied for an army disability pension on 5 June 1918. Interestingly this application did not prevent his registering for the draft on 12 September 1918. I have found no evidence of Vieweg serving another hitch during World War One.

According to the above-mentioned draft registration, Vieweg was married with his wife’s name being Theresa. He was employed as a timekeeper with the J. L. Sommers Manufacturing Company, a firm that produced “wire novelties”. The couple made their home in Newark, New Jersey. The couple was still residing in Newark in 1930 during which time Vieweg was now employed as a department store manager.

Above: A Real Photo Postcard titled “B Troop Sports Taking Life Easy”. The photograph was taken somewhere in the vicinity of Fort Riley, Kansas c 1908 shows nine members of B Troop, 7th United States Cavalry as well as three young men who may have been the sons of some of these soldiers. Private Emil Vieweg stands at far right leaning against the tree. Source: Collection of Edward T. Garcia/soldiersofthequeen.com

In the 1930 United States Census, all adult males had their status as veterans listed. Even though Vieweg clearly served in the U.S. Army he was listed as a non-veteran. I have seen several other similar cases and apparently the enumerators for the 1930 census only listed those former soldiers who had served in a war as veterans. For those men who the “veteran” box was marked “yes” it was always followed by a notation of “WW” for World War One, “SP” for the Spanish-American War and in a few cases by this late date “CW” for Civil War. It should also be noted that there was no veteran credit given to those soldiers who had taken part in the many Indian Wars – at least I have never seen one listed as such.

Vieweg and his wife who was 17 years his senior seem to have remained childless. By 1940 he was widowed and living at he Soldier’s Home Hospital in Washington DC. He passed away on 4 December 1947 and was buried at the Soldier’s Home National Cemetery, Washington DC.

Fragments of the Old West – The Gamblers

One last excursion into the Old West (for now) before moving on to other areas of hopfully historical interest.

Above: An 1870s vintage 1/6th plate tintype of four Old West types who would not look out of place in any saloon setting. The older gent sitting at left in the silk top hat is a character right out of a Hollywood casting department call. He looks more than a little like actor John Carradine. Source: Collection of Edward T. Garcia/soldiersofthequeen.com

This 1/6th plate tintype features a cast of characters who would not look out of place around a poker table in Luke Short’s Long Branch Saloon in Dodge City or in a poker game the Oriental in Tombstone, Arizona. The local could just as easily have been Deadwood or El Paso.

This image dates from around the late 1870s. Each man in completely distinct from others in the group and whether or not they were gamblers as implied is open for question. Who they were and what relationship brought them together for the photograph will probably never be known but it is fascinating to speculate are to what their association may have been.

Above: Actor John Carradine as James Barrow McBride in The Mind Reader, a 1959 episode of ABC Television series The Rifleman. Image: ABC Television/riflemanconnors.com.

Above: while poker was played in the Old West, contrary to depictions in Hollywood westerns it was not as popular as commonly believed. Faro – pictured above – was by far the card game most encountered in gambling halls and saloons. Today the easily played game is virtually extinct possibly due to the low house odds when played fairly.

Fragments of the Old West – or Checking in at Tombstone

Another fragment of the Old West – a Pima County Bank Check/Draft from Tombstone, Arizona dated September 6, 1881, payable to a member of the Fesenfeld family of Anaheim Township which was then part of Los Angeles County. It is endorsed on the reverse by S. J. Fesenfeld and countersigned by banker B. F. Seibert (Benjamin F. Seibert) also of Anaheim. The check was drawn at Tombstone a little less two months before what would become the most infamous gunfight in the Old West – the Gunfight at the OK Corral. It is signed by P.W. Smith, Manager.

Above: The reverse side of the check endorsed by S. J. Fesenfeld to “Yourselves” and countersigned by banker Benjamin F. Seibert of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Los Angeles.

P. W. Smith (Phillip William Smith, 1828-1901) was a key and colorful figure in early Tombstone history. He was a Republican, and considered a member of Wyatt Earp’s political “faction.” It is a little-known fact that the friction between Wyatt Earp and his brothers Virgil and Morgan along with John “Doc” Holliday and the Clantons was as much political as it was legal. The Earps and many of their adherents were members of the Republican Party while Clanton’s and their allies such as Cochise County Sheriff John Behan were all Democrats. Wyatt Earp would run against – and lose to – John Behan for the office of Cochise County Sheriff.

Smith owned and operated “P. W. Smith’s,” a popular general merchandise store in Tombstone. He also owned “P. W. Smith’s Corral,” on the corner of Third Street where Wyatt and Doc Holliday sometimes stabled their horses. Smith and partners B. Solomon and J. B. Fried supplied Tombstone with gas for street lights and homes. Smith was also one of the partners in the newspaper Tombstone Epitaph along with mayor John Clum, Charles Reppy, E. B. Gage (also members or sympathizers of the Earp Faction), and several others. He sold his interest in the paper when Milt Joyce and other Democratic investors took control and brought in Sam Purdy as the new editor.

Above: Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp and John “Doc’ Holliday. All four men would shoot their way into Western legend during the so-called Gunfight at the O.K. Corral at Tombstone, Arizona on October 24, 1881. Virgil Earp served as Tombstone City Marshal and Wyatt and Vigil his deputies. Wyatt and Doc would be appointed Deputy U.S. Marshals in the bloody aftermath of the notorious gunfight.

In 1879, brothers Barron and Lionel Jacobs partnered with Smith to open the Pima County Bank, the first formal financial institution in Tucson. The two brothers were established merchants and suppliers in the Tucson and Tombstone areas, having expanded the family’s business from San Bernardino, California eastward into southeastern Arizona.

The following year, in 1880, the trio opened the “Agency Pima County Bank” in Tombstone, where it operated out of Smith’s mercantile building. In 1882 it became the Cochise County Bank, with Smith as President, but it would shut down in 1890 because of Tombstone’s depressed economy following the closure of many of the silver mines in the area.

Many of Tombstone’s legendary lawmen and outlaws regularly did business with Smith; the day before the shootout at the OK Corral on Oct. 26, 1881, “Cow-Boys” Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury made deposits with Smith at the Pima County Bank, located in Smith’s mercantile building.

Above: Members of the “Cow-Boy” faction who were at odds with the Earps. Ike Clanton, Johnny Ringo, Cochise County Sheriff John Behan and a purported photo of William “Curley Bill” Brocius.

Allegedly, a day or so before the gunfight occurred, Wyatt Earp took delivery of a special frock coat from P. W. Smith’s mercantile store: supposedly a mackinaw with lined pockets and made in dark blue heavy jean or canvas. The pockets were supposed to be lined with stiff leather, doubling as holsters to hide Earp’s pistols. It was reported that Earp was wearing this coat during the famous gunfight.

Above: One of the seemingly endless number of classic scenes from the 1993 production of Tombstone. Source: Youtube/Hollywood Pictures.

On the day of the shooting, one of Smith’s employees, J. H. Batcher, was coming back to the mercantile store, following a few feet behind Wyatt Earp, who was walking in the same direction. He witnessed the famous confrontation between Tom McLaury and Wyatt, which ended when Earp slapped McLaury and then smacked him on the head with the butt of his pistol. This incident, along with Doc Holliday’s earlier confrontation with Ike Clanton, would touch off the gunfight a few hours later. Batcher would later be called to testify in court as to what he had seen that day.

Philip William Smith, merchant, banker, publisher and entrepreneur knew and associated with pretty much every major figure involved in Tombstone’s early days, and the gunfight at the OK Corral.

Fragments of the Old West – Wee-a-Wah

Taken at Fort Washakie, Wyoming sometime in the 1880’s by artist/photographer Merritt Dana Houghton, this cabinet photo depicts a member of the Eastern Shoshone (Kuccuntikka) people by the name of Wee-a-Wah. According to the photograph’s period inscription, his name translates as White Horse. Even after quite extensive research, I have unfortunately been unable to find any personal information regarding this man.

The Eastern Shoshone had been living at the Wind River Reservation and around Fort Washakie since the signing of the Fort Bridger Treaty in 1868 and this man’s wardrobe in clear evidence of this fact. Although of an overall distinctive appearance, virtually every item worn by Wee-a-Wah had been either purchased from white suttlers at Fort Washakie or from reservation trading posts. There is nothing of indigenous manufacture in the way of dress to be seen. On his head is a somewhat battered silk top hat. He has also acquired an 1883 pattern U.S. Army tunic and is wrapped in a fringed plaid blanket. In his right hand is a store bought folding fan. While trade goods were highly prized by indigenous peoples, the complete lack of traditional elements in his attire speaks in volumes to the forced loss of ancient culture in the face of the overwhelming and relentless advance of European/American “civilization”.

Above: The photograph’s reverse side with its subject identified in a period inscription and bearing the stamp of photographer Merritt Dana Houghton. Source: Collection of Edward T. Garcia/soldiersofthequeen.com.

The photographer – Merritt Dana Houghton – was born in Illinois to Canadian parents on May 31, 1846. He first shows up in Rawlins, Wyoming in the 1880 census when is he is listed as a “Photographist”. He was noted as an artist perhaps more than a photographer and produced a large number of “bird’s eye” maps and renderings of western towns and localities. He was married at this time and he and his wife Frances had one child – Charles born about 1877. He was later active in Spokane, Washington and died there in 1918, a victim of the Spanish Flu pandemic.

Above: A bird’s eye view of Fort Fetterman from C. G. Coutant’s History of Wyoming by Merritt Dana Houghton. c. 1899. Source: Wyoming State Museum, Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources.

Fragments of the Old West – Saddle Tramps

In keeping with an ongoing series of posts relating to the Old and Wild West is this 1/6th plate tintype of two men who look even more battered and ill-kept than the photo that recorded their image for posterity. These two men seem to fit the bill of those denizens of the Old West who were often described as saddle tramps. With no fixed abode, men such as these traveled for round up to round up, from odd job to odd job as the need directed or drove them. Often times these vagrant drovers flitted life away on both sides of the law – working for a rancher one day and rustling his cattle or thieving his horses the next. Their entire net worth was carried on the back of their horses (unfortunately not pictured here) which were often as ill-kept and shabby looking as their owners.

The taller, clean-shaven man at left wears grubby, fringed buckskin trousers, a collared vest, checked collarless shirt and a dark very wide-brimmed hat with one side brim turned slightly up making it resemble very much a darker version of that worn by the character Curly Bill Brocius in the classic western film Tombstone. To be true, these two character’s mode of dress is nowhere near as picturesque and flamboyant as that worn by the outlaw cow-boys in Tombstone.

The bearded man standing at right has a rather piratical look about him. The brim of his almost shapeless hat is turned almost completely up probably because it was the only way to keep the brim from falling down over his eyes. His jacket has only the uppermost button fastened in a manner popular at the time. He wears a boldly checkered shirt and has a bandanna tightly knotted around his neck. Given his overall look with a change of setting he could easily be mistaken for a member of a Boer commando from the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa c. 1900.

Perhaps the most telling details in this photograph are the men’s boots, the toes of which are completely worn through due to age and hard use. Given their shabby and well-worn look, it is hard to imagine how these men were able to scrape together the twenty-five cents that this photograph would have cost them.

Above: Dodge City, Kansas c. 1875. Frontier/cowtowns such as Dodge City would have seen more than its fare share of saddle tramps passing though. Not long after this photograph was taken, Wyatt Earp was appointed town marshal of Dodge.

The cattle industry that is so firmly associated with the Old West had its origins in Texas and it can be assumed that prior to the Civil War the overwhelming majority of black cowboys were in fact slaves. With the end of the war and emancipation it would have been natural for these men to continue on in the trade they knew best – but now by choice and for a daily wage.

The era of the great cattle drives from Texas north to Abilene and Dodge City in Kansas did not last long but indelibly shaped the character and reputations of the men who took part in them regardless of race, creed or even national origin.

Taken in the center of Texas cattle country, this photograph depicts two young black men who appear to be late 19th or early 20th Century cowhands.

While their actual trade will probably never be known for certain, the two young men certainly fit the proverbial bill for being cowboys or ranch hands from the early 1900s. Located almost literally “deep in the heart of Texas“, Ballinger (founded in 1886) was home to numerous cattle ranches any of which these men may have been employed. It is also possible that they were working on their own account, the owners of their own spread. Unfortunately, they are unidentified so researching their story will be problematic.

Above: Prominently located in Courthouse Square in the town of Ballinger, the Charles H. Noyes statue honors a young local cowboy who died while roping cattle around 1919. The statue reflects the importance of the local cattle industry and is dedicated to “Spirit of the Texas Cowboy.” Source: ballinger-tx.com

One interesting detail of the men’s costumes are the decorative buttons arraigned in a trefoil pattern on the seated man’s collar points. They are purely decorative in function and are typical of the small and individualistic sartorial flourishes so beloved by denizens of the Old West.

*During much of the historical period generally considered the “Old West” the term cowboy was looked upon with derision by many. It was often associated with cattle rustlers and outlaw types. A case in point was the so-called cow-boy faction of ner-do-wells who opposed Wyatt Earp, his brothers and “Doc” Holliday in early 1880s Tombstone, Arizona Territory. Those who plied an honest trade in cattle preferred such terms as cowhand, cowpuncher, cattleman, buckaroo (a derivative of the Spanish vaquero) or cowpoke. “Cowboy” would not begin to lose its outlaw stigma until around the time this photograph was taken.

The Case of the Red Planet

Ok, so I have a slight obsession with the planet Mars of yesteryear. The Mars of today while still red, bears little if any resemblance to the celestial body that held the hopes of some great adventure like that which awaited Civil War veteran John Carter in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars. Nor does it still possess the sense of impending doom as foreseen by H. G. Wells in War of the Worlds. It should, but modern science – that killer of dreams – put an untimely end to that which we all knew, or at least hoped to be true. This tiny 1/16th glass plate image of Mars harks back to those halcyon but now long lost days.

Above: Resplendent with its padded purple velvet liner, this tiny cased image pose several questions. The thermoplastic case is of the type commonly used just prior to and during the American Civil War. The glass image itself does not appear to be an ambrotype plate one would normally see in such case but may actually be a period magic lantern slide which was cut down to fit the case. Source: Collection of Edward T. Garcia.

When closed this c. 1860 thermoplastic cased image measures a gem-like 1 7/8 inches by 2 inches (4.8cm x 5cm). The image itself is not a true photograph of Mars since at the time there was no way of tracking a planet with a telescope over the very long exposure times required to produce an image. The common practice at the time consisted of an artist or astronomer observing the planet over a given length of time and creating a drawing or painting of what he saw. Then the finished artwork was photographed in a studio setting to produce the final glass plate image. Under very close examination this image appears to have been photographed from a watercolor painting.

Above: The detailed outside of the thermoplastic case with a fruiting plant design. The tiny rose-headed pins which retain the cases brass hinges and clasp can be clearly seen. Often mistakenly referred to as gutta percha, photographic cases such as this example was made from thermoplastic, a putty made up of coal or sawdust mixed with shelac. The plastic material was then pressed into carved steel molds and baked. The resulting hardened material took on this dark brown or sometimes black coloration and could hold extremely fine detail. Thermoplastic could be somewhat brittle and subject to chipping and cracking. This example is almost unblemished. Source: Collection of Edward T. Garcia.

Unfortunately, there is nothing to indicate who may have produced or owned this little image but it must have been a prized and very unique possession then just as it is now.